Interesting Stuff (you might have missed) # 27

Intelligence Redo Is Harshly Judged (You can say that again, but I hope we don’t have to suffer another 9/11 to do so! -- Read it all; excerpts below)

U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard A. Posner sharply criticized the restructuring of U.S. intelligence agencies last week, telling CIA lawyers that the overhaul has done nothing to rectify flaws exposed by al-Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that the changes "in the end . . . will amount to rather little."… "Failure in a democratic society," he said, "demands a response that promises, however improbably, to prevent future failures. [And] the preferred response is a reorganization, because it is at once dramatic and relatively cheap."… In Posner's analysis, the director of national intelligence (DNI), created by Congress to be the president's top intelligence adviser, was given too much to do. DNI John D. Negroponte oversees the CIA and 15 other intelligence agencies, including those at the Pentagon. Negroponte's staff, which has grown to about 1,000, "has become a new bureaucracy layered on top of the intelligence community," Posner said…. Posner said that the DNI should have been given only a coordinating role in U.S. intelligence, and that the CIA director, now Porter J. Goss, should have remained the president's senior intelligence adviser. That approach would have eliminated the requirement that the DNI's office build its own bureaucracy of analysts, he said.

Study Fails to Link Naval Sonar to Whale Strandings (now, can we defend ourselves?)

Defiant Schroeder starts gas job (I thought he already was a "gas job"? -- Thanks Putin; Schroeder follows other buddy Clinton in collecting foreign $)

Statehouses take up immigration legislation

Yahoo! Abomination. (Yahoo continues as kapo for China)

Iran hard-line regime cracks down on blogs

From Feudalism to Consent: Rethinking Birthright Citizenship (purposely crossing the border to birth is common, and allows child citizenship, and parents to stay legally, both causing one of the largest public budget drains of “immigration”)

Profits surge to 40-year high

On table at Hu-Bush talks: Just the tip of China iceberg

Scandals of Accounting

N.Y. Times Probed on Sudan Ad Insert (for $1m you can buy the NYT’s supply of fishwrap)

A bill in Congress would establish a board to advise the government on whether federally funded international relations programs benefit U.S. interests. (polite for: who’s buying into our universities?)

Palestinian minister off to bad start: Bolton

Turning off terrorist television

G.O.P. Is Taking Aim at Advocacy Groups (Can’t squelch free speech, hear that McCain and Feingold; but Dems defend 527's as they spend more for Dems)

After 2004, the Federal Election Commission scrutinized some 527 groups… The result, said Kenneth A. Gross, a campaign finance lawyer, was that "527's have been demonized to some extent," prompting many outside advocacy groups to rely on another provision of the tax code, 501c(4), which governs nonprofit groups. Business and trade associations typically operate under a similar provision, 501c(6). As a bonus, the 501c groups are not required to disclose their donors, as 527 groups are…. Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who is an opponent of restraining 527 committees, likened the current atmosphere to whack-a-mole, the carnival game where the player hits a mole with a hammer, only to have another pop up. He is backing legislation that would raise limits on contributions to political parties — an idea that opponents say would gut previous reforms.
"We hit political parties and 527's pop up," Mr. Pence said. "We're going to whack them and 501c's are going to pop up."
Despite the current dip in 527 activity, some new ones are being established, including one opposing Senator Rick Santorum, a conservative Republican in a tough re-election race in Pennsylvania. Veteran Democratic operatives just established a new group called Fresh Start for America, which is expected to engage in Senate races this year.
As lawmakers prepare for a potential fight, Mr. Pariser of MoveOn.org said there could be one unexpected consequence. He suggested the effort to clamp down on 527 groups could enhance the influence of his organization because it would have the financial means to mount aggressive campaigns while potential competing groups would be handcuffed.
"We will be better positioned to do political ads," he said. "I presume that was not their intent." )